Legendary Indian Actress Zohra Sehgal Dies at 102

Legendary Indian actress Zohra Sehgal died in New Delhi on Thursday at the age of 102, after falling ill four days earlier, her daughter told Press Trust of India.

Ms. Sehgal’s career spanned dance, theater and film. She is widely known for her performances as a dignified but jovial grandmother in Bollywood romances like “Dil Se,” a 1998 film whose title translates as “From the Heart,” a tragic story of a radio executive who falls in love with a terrorist that features the iconic song “Chhaiya Chhaiya,” filmed aboard a moving train. In 1999 she acted in the tear-jerker “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam,” which swept Indian film award ceremonies the following year.

In 2002 at the age of 90, she starred as Biji, a wise grandmother, in the football comedy “Bend It Like Beckham” about a young Indian woman growing up in Britain, torn between her family’s expectations and her prowess as a football player. In 2010 Ms. Sehgal received India’s second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, for her contribution to Indian cinema.

She married Kameshwar Sehgal in 1942, a dancer and scientist, and they eventually settled in Mumbai. In 1945 she joined one of the city’s best-known theatres run by actor and director Prithviraj Kapoor as a stage artist, where she worked for 14 years. Mr. Sehgal died in 1952, leaving Ms. Sehgal to raise two children, Pawan and Kiran.

She moved to London on a drama scholarship in 1962. Ms. Sehgal last appeared on screen at age 94 as a sprightly Catholic woman in Bollywood director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2007 romance “Saawariya,” a film title that translates as “My Love.”

Tributes poured in on Twitter after news of Ms. Sehgal’s death broke Thursday, including one from Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan.

Her daughter Kiran published “Zohra Sehgal — Fatty,” a book about her mother’s life, to mark the occasion of her 100th birthday in 2012. Ms. Kiran Sehgal said “Fatty” was a term of endearment for her weight-conscious mother, who remained as particular about her figure as a “16-year-old starlet,” according to an article in Digital Journal.

A documentary, “Zohra Sehgal: An Interview,” which includes an extended conversation with Ms. Sehgal, was screened at her 100th birthday celebration. As part of the interview, Ms. Sehgal recited iconic Urdu poet Faiz’s “Mujhse Pehli Si Mohabbat,” which means “The Love I Once Gave.”